I'm travelling to the USA soon for a conference so today I was arranging flights, you know that thing that used to take a travel agent, was lots of hassle and always left you frazzled and now you routinely do in 20 minutes on the internet.
I went to my preferred airline website and logged in and went to Multi-city planner. Put in my plan. Canberra to Sydney on day 1. Sydney to Dallas Fortworth on Day 1. Dallas to Detroit on Day 1. Coming back a week later Detroit to Dallas Day 5, Dallas to Sydney Day 5, Sydney to Canberra Day 7.
OK now to see what flights it could find.
Error. Sorry you can't have three segments on the same day. Since I'm flying back in time to the USA I arrive in Dallas 20 minutes after I leave Sydney after being on the plane for 14+ hours and then I want to leave Dallas on the same day. Sorry. Can't do that.
So I went to a flight comparison site. One of them couldn't do the dates I wanted and the other suggested two airlines, my preferred carrier and another I am less fond of. When I had a look at the dates etc, I couldn't get it to come out to an estimate that I had made a week ago so I put that aside and went back to my preferred carrier website.
OK. Let's get an idea of the cost. Drop the Canberra to Sydney leg. Try again. Play with the dates a little and it suggests $1,820. OK that looks acceptable I'll work out what to do about the Canberra leg later. Move on to the next page of the booking process. Price changes from $1,820 to $2,460. WTF!
Call the airline, wait 15 minutes on hold. Speak to a very nice person who tells me they can ticket me for $2,790. Explain that I can do better through the internet (their site) and told sorry the only way you can get a price like that is to book it through the internet. OK. Thanks anyway.
Go back and try a simple Return trip. Canberra to Detroit. Sure I can do that. It selected exactly the same flights as I would have selected on the multi-city planner and was ready to charge me $4,700 EACH WAY.
Really WTF!!
Go back and try Canberra to Dallas to Detroit to Dallas to Sydney to Canberra. Some flexibility on the dates. After a bit of back and forth and testing I can book the flights for $1,871 if I leave Dallas on the Saturday instead of Thursday or Friday. Or I can pay $2,500 if I leave on the Thursday. It turns out that with accommodation and sundry meals it is still going to be $250 cheaper for me to spend another two nights in Detroit and fly back on Saturday.
Bottom line is if I wasn't a little careful I could have paid anything up to $9,500 for exactly the same flights and class (economy) as I have now paid $1,900 including credit card surcharge!.
So while the simple travel plans are now much simpler to arrange with the interwebs some slightly more complex plans are still apt to get you a bit frazzled.
The bonus is I get to fly on the A380 from LA to Sydney so that will be a new experience for me.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Monday, 25 March 2013
7 Weeks at the Gym
My last couple of trips to the gym have been interesting from the point of view of comparisons. Now I don't go to the gym to compare and I try very hard to pay attention to what I am doing and only what I am doing but the other night (Friday) I was going through my new routine: I changed from 2 sets of 20 reps to 4 sets of 10 and I'm still adjusting the weights. There was a young lady there who isn't much bigger than my daughter. She was on the leg press machine when I got there and about 30 minutes later was still going. 6 or 7 repetitions at a time then off for a quick walk around and back. After a couple of sets she would go and find some more weights to put on. Now the carriage weighs 53kg to start with and by the end of her workout she had 160kg on the carriage and was doing her 6 or 7 reps with apparently no real strain. I'd be surprised if she weighed 55kg herself.
Only being 7 weeks in to my program I'm still taking it a bit easy trying to work my way up to some heavier weights but still keeping it challenging. So I hopped into the machine loaded up with 80kg and I could do my 4 sets of 10 but I could really feel it starting to burn at the end so I think I have that weight about right at least for the next couple of workouts. So this young lady had me in awe of the power that can be packed into well toned and not huge muscles. I'm guessing she is a dancer or martial artist.
On the whole I'm really pleased with my progress. When I signed up I could just barely do 10 pushups and certainly couldn't have gone back to do 10 more after a short rest. Now I can do 4 sets of 10 and while the last couple of the last set are a real strain still it shows real progress.
Tonight I had a Pilates class that still left me wobbly on my legs and again there was another young lady pushing heavier springs than me and she was another tiny one.
It's definitely a good thing I am firmly in the "this is what I have to do for me" not to compete mindset because otherwise I might be inclined to give up now and where would be the fun in that?
On the side effect side of things I work a (home) office job at my desk at my computer and have suffered neck and shoulder pain for quite some years now. While there is still stiffness and some soreness to be had it isn't as bad as it was and I feel I'm making progress from the increasingly couch bound sedentary life I was sinking into, back into a more active participation in everything. This is all probably a good thing because soon we will start the rather large renovation task of replacing the floorboards in 1/4 of the house and replacing the kitchen and for that I will need to be fitter than I was at the beginning of the year. And I am :-)
Only being 7 weeks in to my program I'm still taking it a bit easy trying to work my way up to some heavier weights but still keeping it challenging. So I hopped into the machine loaded up with 80kg and I could do my 4 sets of 10 but I could really feel it starting to burn at the end so I think I have that weight about right at least for the next couple of workouts. So this young lady had me in awe of the power that can be packed into well toned and not huge muscles. I'm guessing she is a dancer or martial artist.
On the whole I'm really pleased with my progress. When I signed up I could just barely do 10 pushups and certainly couldn't have gone back to do 10 more after a short rest. Now I can do 4 sets of 10 and while the last couple of the last set are a real strain still it shows real progress.
Tonight I had a Pilates class that still left me wobbly on my legs and again there was another young lady pushing heavier springs than me and she was another tiny one.
It's definitely a good thing I am firmly in the "this is what I have to do for me" not to compete mindset because otherwise I might be inclined to give up now and where would be the fun in that?
On the side effect side of things I work a (home) office job at my desk at my computer and have suffered neck and shoulder pain for quite some years now. While there is still stiffness and some soreness to be had it isn't as bad as it was and I feel I'm making progress from the increasingly couch bound sedentary life I was sinking into, back into a more active participation in everything. This is all probably a good thing because soon we will start the rather large renovation task of replacing the floorboards in 1/4 of the house and replacing the kitchen and for that I will need to be fitter than I was at the beginning of the year. And I am :-)
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Bullying awareness week
With all of the Pope related news at the moment I almost feel like I have to start with "Forgive me readers for I've been slack, it's been 10 days since I posted..."
I'm not religious but I do appreciate that we live in a world that is strongly affected by the views of the major religions. For that reason I hope that the new Pope - Francis - can make positive improvements within the Catholic church in areas that are most out of line with progressive reasonable thinking especially in line with the sanctity of marriage, choice in sexuality and other contentious issues.
This week, aside from having a new Pope elected is also Bullying awareness week with a number of programs being run in the schools to raise awareness of the issue and suggest strategies for dealing with bullying. This topic is much closer to home for us than the larger world issues as our lovely, clever daughter (DP nearly 14) was the target of bullying for her last couple of years of primary school. Now DP has always been a bit shy and we never thought that she would grow up to be a motivational speaker or stage performer (and she probably still won't) however, her last two years at High School have brought about all sorts of positive changes in her personality and willingness to get involved in activities that take her out of her comfort zone. She is always volunteering to assist with something.
Two days ago DP told us that she was going to be giving some talks about bullying to a number of groups within the school. It transpires that these are not planned, prepared speeches but talks about her bullying experiences and some of the things that have helped her deal with and grow from the experiences. It also turns out that DP has volunteered for these speaking opportunities not as a result of students being asked to volunteer but because it is something that she feels strongly about so she asked one of the teachers if it would be possible.
DP was routinely in tears from bullying during year 6 and to see her standing up before her peers and talking about the experience from the point of view of a bullied student is a wonderful and warming thing. I continue to be amazed and impressed by the way she is growing into a confident young lady from the timid little girl she used to be.
In unrelated general goings on I've been getting to the gym almost as planned and feel that it's starting to pay off at least a bit. I can see the progress that I've been making on the workout sheet. My writing is coming along a little slower than I had hoped but is still progressing. I'm at 17,000 words in a revised draft of my story where I kind of planned to be closer to 30,000 by now. However, I'm happy with the way the characters are developing this time which was one of the major flaws in my first draft.
So six weeks in progress is good and the motivation is being maintained.
I'm not religious but I do appreciate that we live in a world that is strongly affected by the views of the major religions. For that reason I hope that the new Pope - Francis - can make positive improvements within the Catholic church in areas that are most out of line with progressive reasonable thinking especially in line with the sanctity of marriage, choice in sexuality and other contentious issues.
This week, aside from having a new Pope elected is also Bullying awareness week with a number of programs being run in the schools to raise awareness of the issue and suggest strategies for dealing with bullying. This topic is much closer to home for us than the larger world issues as our lovely, clever daughter (DP nearly 14) was the target of bullying for her last couple of years of primary school. Now DP has always been a bit shy and we never thought that she would grow up to be a motivational speaker or stage performer (and she probably still won't) however, her last two years at High School have brought about all sorts of positive changes in her personality and willingness to get involved in activities that take her out of her comfort zone. She is always volunteering to assist with something.
Two days ago DP told us that she was going to be giving some talks about bullying to a number of groups within the school. It transpires that these are not planned, prepared speeches but talks about her bullying experiences and some of the things that have helped her deal with and grow from the experiences. It also turns out that DP has volunteered for these speaking opportunities not as a result of students being asked to volunteer but because it is something that she feels strongly about so she asked one of the teachers if it would be possible.
DP was routinely in tears from bullying during year 6 and to see her standing up before her peers and talking about the experience from the point of view of a bullied student is a wonderful and warming thing. I continue to be amazed and impressed by the way she is growing into a confident young lady from the timid little girl she used to be.
In unrelated general goings on I've been getting to the gym almost as planned and feel that it's starting to pay off at least a bit. I can see the progress that I've been making on the workout sheet. My writing is coming along a little slower than I had hoped but is still progressing. I'm at 17,000 words in a revised draft of my story where I kind of planned to be closer to 30,000 by now. However, I'm happy with the way the characters are developing this time which was one of the major flaws in my first draft.
So six weeks in progress is good and the motivation is being maintained.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Stubborn or determined?
We were having a chat with the kids the other week on different personality traits that people have and our son GP said that he thought that stubbornness was probably one of the easier traits to deal with.
After I stopped laughing we went on to demonstrate through some role play just why we don't think this is the case.
Me: "Let's start with an easy one: 'Do you want something from the kiosk?'" This asked at an indoor soccer game a few years ago.
GP: "Yes"
Me: "What"
GP: "An ice cream"
Me: "Sure. Here's the money just go up and tell the lady behind the counter what you want"
GP: "Can't you do it?"
Me: "No. You can do it. They won't bite you. In fact they want to sell you something. That's why they are there."
This sort of discussion goes on for two, three or five minutes.
Finally. Me: "This is your last chance. Go and buy something or you get nothing."
GP: "I don't want anything."
We drive home.
GP: "Can I have an ice block?"
Me: "No. You had your chance earlier!"
GP: Sullen look on his face as he plops into the couch.
Now I understand that his reluctance comes from being in an uncomfortable situation but this sort of thing was quite common. It took until GP was nearly five for us to get any sort of lever to curb his behaviour when he got it in his head to either do or not do something. He was, as they say, born with a stubborn streak about a mile wide.
We went through a number of other simple scenes from our lives together and I explained, again, that I had truly learnt the meaning behind the phrase "You can lead a .... to .... but you cannot make them ...." only after GP started to exert his personality.
So a couple of weeks after this discussion GP had started high school and we were talking about homework, effort that needed to be put in and other stuff around how to make the best of the opportunities that would present themselves over the next few years. I chimed in with a comment about the conversation on stubbornness and pointed out that the flip side of the coin was determination. I think of stubbornness as a negative, reactive trait and determination as a positive pro-active trait but really they are the same thing. It's just a question of what you get your mind fixed on.
Stubborn people dig their heels in and won't get out of their own way while a determined person drives forward and won't let anyone get in their way.
For my personal goals my determination is paying off. I haven't managed to get to the gym as often as I planned but I'm still going and seeing improvements and my writing is progressing fairly well. The games room was down to be cleaned up so we could set up the scroll saw by 1 March. Well I didn't quite get there due in part to hurting my back while putting a flat pack cupboard together. It got better but I lost a few days at the cleaning and the gym for a few seconds on careless lifting. This weekend should see the scroll saw shifted and it looks like we will be having a garage sale to get rid of some accumulated stuff from over the years.
So our challenge to GP and to ourselves is to be more determined and less stubborn. Choose something and stick at it rather than letting someone or some circumstance choose for you and then fight against it.
After I stopped laughing we went on to demonstrate through some role play just why we don't think this is the case.
Me: "Let's start with an easy one: 'Do you want something from the kiosk?'" This asked at an indoor soccer game a few years ago.
GP: "Yes"
Me: "What"
GP: "An ice cream"
Me: "Sure. Here's the money just go up and tell the lady behind the counter what you want"
GP: "Can't you do it?"
Me: "No. You can do it. They won't bite you. In fact they want to sell you something. That's why they are there."
This sort of discussion goes on for two, three or five minutes.
Finally. Me: "This is your last chance. Go and buy something or you get nothing."
GP: "I don't want anything."
We drive home.
GP: "Can I have an ice block?"
Me: "No. You had your chance earlier!"
GP: Sullen look on his face as he plops into the couch.
Now I understand that his reluctance comes from being in an uncomfortable situation but this sort of thing was quite common. It took until GP was nearly five for us to get any sort of lever to curb his behaviour when he got it in his head to either do or not do something. He was, as they say, born with a stubborn streak about a mile wide.
We went through a number of other simple scenes from our lives together and I explained, again, that I had truly learnt the meaning behind the phrase "You can lead a .... to .... but you cannot make them ...." only after GP started to exert his personality.
So a couple of weeks after this discussion GP had started high school and we were talking about homework, effort that needed to be put in and other stuff around how to make the best of the opportunities that would present themselves over the next few years. I chimed in with a comment about the conversation on stubbornness and pointed out that the flip side of the coin was determination. I think of stubbornness as a negative, reactive trait and determination as a positive pro-active trait but really they are the same thing. It's just a question of what you get your mind fixed on.
Stubborn people dig their heels in and won't get out of their own way while a determined person drives forward and won't let anyone get in their way.
For my personal goals my determination is paying off. I haven't managed to get to the gym as often as I planned but I'm still going and seeing improvements and my writing is progressing fairly well. The games room was down to be cleaned up so we could set up the scroll saw by 1 March. Well I didn't quite get there due in part to hurting my back while putting a flat pack cupboard together. It got better but I lost a few days at the cleaning and the gym for a few seconds on careless lifting. This weekend should see the scroll saw shifted and it looks like we will be having a garage sale to get rid of some accumulated stuff from over the years.
So our challenge to GP and to ourselves is to be more determined and less stubborn. Choose something and stick at it rather than letting someone or some circumstance choose for you and then fight against it.
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